City expected to give go-ahead for Poulsbo homeless teen center

POULSBO - The final draft of a lease between the city and Coffee Oasis to operate a drop-in center for homeless and at-risk teens in town has been fine-tuned and will be presented Wednesday for the City Council to review.

If a vote on a resolution at a council meeting earlier this month is any indication, the council will likely approve the agreement.

The center is proposed to go into the city's vacant Public Works administrative building at 780 NE Iverson Street, near Eighth Street. Its development will come in phases. It will begin as a safe place for homeless and at-risk youth to gather. But the longer-range goal is to open a coffee shop and provide case management and job-training skills to help the youth it serves become self-sufficient and move into permanent housing.

Under the draft lease, Hope in Christ Ministries — the parent organization of Coffee Oasis — would be required to pay the city $400 a month in rent. The lease is for three years, with the option to renew for an additional three years. The rent will go up 3 percent each year, but the lease stipulates rent will never exceed $700 a month.

To help keep costs down for the nonprofit, the city is subsidizing the difference between the $400 figure and what is considered fair market value for the 2,000-square-foot space. The city hasn't finalized what fair market value would be, but Mayor Becky Erickson said it's estimated at between $1,100 and $1,500 a month.

The city will use money from an enterprise fund to cover the difference. The fund is specifically designated for programs that help at-risk children or those affected by domestic violence or neglect, Erickson said. The money is from sales tax collected by the city that is mandated by the state to be used only for these types of programs, she said.

"We get about $5,500 every year that comes into the account," Erickson said. "Through the years we have not allocated that money, it's just grown."

The city has $31,000 in the account. It has given roughly $2,000 a year to the YWCA to help its shelter for abused women and children in the area, but there's plenty of money remaining to help offset the Coffee Oasis rent.

"When funding like that comes forward and it's dedicated in that way, we need to figure out how to use it effectively as a city," Erickson said.

The only council member to express concern about leasing the space to Coffee Oasis was Linda Berry-Maraist, who said she wanted to see more details on the lease. Berry-Maraist said she isn't against the center and supports the organization.

"I wanted to see how we would pay for it and how the numbers would work," she said.

Because the center will be run by a Christian nonprofit, Berry-Maraist said she also wanted to make sure nobody would be turned away if their beliefs didn't line up with the faith-based organization or be forced to participate in religious activities if they didn't want to.

"I thought the language that was put in the lease was perfect and it did address all my concerns," Berry-Maraist said. "Discrimination is not allowed, and the religious mission is not a requirement for anybody to get services."

The lease also says Coffee Oasis must work "cooperatively and supportively (sic)" with the Poulsbo Police Department and it must provide an annual report to the city detailing how many people are helped by the center each year and what programs are offered.

Because the teen center hopes to expand, there's a strong likelihood Sound Works Job Center — located in the same building — will move out, giving Coffee Oasis use of the 2,600-square-foot building. The city will work with Sound Works to find a new location at no cost to the job center, Erickson said.

The council is expected to vote on the lease at a special meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall, 200 NE Moe St.